Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Google has the motto "Don't be evil," and from its earliest times, it has sought to be exemplary in its ethical choices. So, it must have been quite a shock to Google's leaders when people began throwing rocks at their buses (free employee transportation) in the city of San Francisco (Gumbel, 2014). Trying to be virtuous is not the same as being virtuous. The global media constantly scrutinizes corporate conduct and can quickly and broadly spread the news of corporate moral failures (Burleigh, 2015). So, it is important for businesses to find and hold to generally accepted standards of morality, not just to avoid litigation, but to avoid a crippling loss of reputation, as multinational firms can even face condemnation in one country for their behavior in another (Dean, 2010). So, despite the difficulties, businesses must figure out how to behave as well as possible (Wadhwa, 2016) wherever they have personnel.
A substantial body of academic research agrees. Stakeholder theory endorses the stance that employees, customers, and even vendors expect to be treated fairly by a company (Donaldson & Preston, 1995). At minimum, the literature takes the perspective that businesses are to be ethically responsible by taking reasonable steps to not cause harm (Culnan & Williams, 2009).
However, traditional moral authority is falling victim to self-interest (Magretta, 1999). Perhaps it is because conventional, ethical frameworks are losing relevance (Ebrahim & Weisband, 2007) while "economic self-interest has acquired a new social legitimacy" (Hendry, 2001). There is no question that external pressures can push decision-makers towards questionable actions. The Institutional Anomie Theory argues that a national culture can unintentionally...